Welcome back as I give another annual post-convention report for my local fandom convention, ConBravo! Many descended onto the Hamilton Convention Centre and the adjacent Sheraton Hotel to once more enjoy various events and get-togethers for a weekend. I was pretty busy this year though as this year I’ve come to aid the D20 Live crew online and in any capacity I can (I’ve been dealing with some health issues stemming from a broken arm during a winter fall and then recurring internal concerns thereafter but I’ve been rehabbing to make this year’s event) as well as making a rare 1 weekend appearance as a 404s actor/host/aid over the weekend! Thus I’ll try something a little different for this report by listing each event I was involved with, then the ones I was able to attend in between before ending with my convention finds and my filmed video links and other notes.

*The Audience Q & A and Audience plays D20 Live Event*
About 70+ attended this event on the main stage of the Hamilton Convention Centre to kick off Friday. The first part was fielding tabletop RPG questions with lots of helpful advice from Big Mike, Sam the Production Manager and fellow DM Devin. The second part was the chance for fans again to choose their own adventure via cheering votes and rolling a giant inflatable dice!

*D20 Live Pokémon*
For the main show on Saturday night in the Sheraton Hotel’s Ballroom just before The 404s Late Show, it hit max capacity at about 300 with some standing to watch. The journey took our four guests into Canadiana a new region to help solve problems to earn money while finding not all is what it seemed. The DM Big Mike showed why he’s the best DM in Canada and the crew supported him well. Aiding with watching over equipment at both D20 Live events was very welcome.

*The 404s Opening Short Form Show*
About 160+ attended the first show on Friday on the Main Stage. For this one I returned as an actor with the mix of the old (host Medium Mike, Dylan) and newer troupe members I only got to act with for a short time before my road retirement (Nicole, Dom, Adrian, Shelldon). I was glad that I didn’t have that much rust going into games like Alphabet with the audience suggestion of long lost siblings, Jesus! We got do give a Weird Newscasters report with a co-host who got so angry he’s scare himself, Tarzan on weather and a sportscaster who hates sports and rather call the weather which Tarzan called “water is wet”. 2 Line Vocabulary kept me saying often “Should I take my clothes off?” Emotional Roller Coaster got crazy being a growing son to a mother going to see Teen Beach Movie that apparently exists that it made me hungry and angry. I got to be on a Dating Show too. Sorry folks if I don’t know Rick and Morty. I do know about the others I guessed and guess I got a date in Hell in the future.

Fans got to not only give suggestions but also be on stage to help with scenes such as Funeral and Sound Effects where the latter had the GOVERNMENT given a distinct sound, to loaning their cosplay props for games like Props and Infomercial which dealt with how to find alternative means for not showering like stink sauce and the keep away stick. The fans were so happy to see The 404s Improv Comedy Troupe back!

*The 404s Good Bad & Ugly Saturday Advice Panel*
About 70+ came to ask for advice from the cast in a sort of Fish Story format with each answer ramping up to be crazier. I watched while aiding the merchandise table and it was quite fun to see fans get things right away and even ask some pretty crazy questions of their own about things like world domination.

*The 404s Saturday Late Show*
Over 100 attendees stayed up late to see this 2 hour show that I got to host. Using Cards Against Humanity, various fans got envelopes to choose from questions/statements on a black card to match 3 white cards with mature content.

Fans get rowdier into this show and the 18+ audience had fun with the adult content it seemed. I had my ups and downs as I wasn’t originally the host for this but I did what I could and live to learn. I can’t say too much more from this show aside it was the return of the Pantless Midnight O’clock on stage and the line of the show I think I can note is “sweeping and weed” since it got the most call backs to other shows. You have to be there for the late night fun at conventions!

*The 404s Sunday Workshop*
It had over 25 attend and participate with several filling out forms to be contacted about future auditions. Participants got to learn training and practice activities like Red Ball/Blue Ball and Clap Focus to learn improvisation skills one at a time, then had their hand at a mini-show in small groups of the same short form games and scenes done by The 404s or for some of you for reference, the Whose Line is it Anyways show. It was great to see such energy and synergy from those trying out that I got to photograph/film/note take for the troupe and give input to some potential future 404s actors for those filling out the audition forms!

*The 404s Sunday Fiasco RPG Show: Kingdom Hearts*
The attendance was 70+ with more coming in as the 2 hour long form show went on to get over 100 watching this fun telling of the long awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 video game RPG! I was one of the secondary characters for the main cast that saw everything from secret reveals to Max Goof of Goof Troop which I played off of playing both Roxanne his former girlfriend from the first movie and his dad Goofy.

The audience got to vote on key events during the show with colour cards to decide the fate of the main cast in the end. They sure were into changing alliances a lot all over the place and lots of action from Keyblade battles using toasters to lots of portal travel. Domination of the Dark World and Disney Kingdom was on the line! It had singing, battles and some tender moments throughout the show. The reveals were amazing and cameos aplenty. But in the end a little ice cream and a self sacrifice made for an exciting set of endings for the cast members.

*Other Events*
Opening Ceremonies: It was shorter than normal as they took time to introduce a new staff handling this year and name the special guests this year ranging from YouTube Personalities to Cosplayers. I did find it fun have the Alpha-1 Champion Rickey Shane Page give a little plug before the returning Justin Sane came to rant about the fans and about taking on Page for the title before a shoving ensued. It is funny my friend Dave was on stage to make the save and he’s bigger than either guy! He’s a champ! Big Mike was also given the chance to give the keynote speech which I found very profound and fun.

Friday’s Alpha-1 Pro Wrestling Show and the Saturday Question & Answer guest panel https://www.youtube.com/user/Alpha1Wrestling : I caught a tiny bit of the show since they begun before The 404s, and I saw a bit while being outside awaiting my Dating Game moment. I got to say hi to the guys I know in the company having worked with some of them when I was staff at Anime North and headed one of many departments with the Anime Hardcore Wrestling shows. They had about 100 people coming in and out to watch the hour long show.

The Panel on Saturday was very entertaining and insightful on the sacrifices they make as pro wrestlers both for lifestyle and health. The road trips I can emphasize with when I used to be on the road too with The 404s. Rickey Shane Page, Jim Nye the Science Guy, Steve Brown, Gregory Iron and Ethan Page were the guests. I got to ask them a question for my New Zealand friend about their international experience that ranged from DDT in Japan to the UK scene and of course the USA (with for some of them from Ohio from Matt Cross’ area being Canada as international). Iron had some of the funnier stories and didn’t even shy from his Cerebral Palsy condition which I find it’s admirable he wrestles despite of it. I asked their funniest or craziest moment in or outside the ring and got a variety of answers from losing keys at a roller coaster ride to hearing some stories about other stars from Randy Orton to Tommy Dreamer. The part about injuries was very real and cringe-worthy talking about backs, bladings and even pelvis breakage. In the end it was an awesome idea to do the panel to let the wrestlers loose and tell some great stories.

Gaijin Goombah’s Panel https://www.youtube.com/user/GaijinGoomba : I can’t say much as with many events on the weekend I was going back and forth between buildings and rooms barely making a bit of each event I wasn’t a part of. I did fit in my question near the end about my favourite videos he does in Which Ninja as he talked about his favourites while fans gave their own input. His stories about Japanese culture make me want to head there to do teaching in the future too.

Closing Ceremonies: After thanks by the convention staff they continued the tradition of fielding questions, concerns and take advice for improvements and guests for the future. More conventions need to do this no matter the size. They still do ask for the same things online on social media via surveys and posts but it’s welcome when you talk to someone one on one and they take note to learn, especially as noted for a brand new staff willing to learn to make next year’s 10th anniversary convention a grander one!

-From Artist Alley: A bunch of stickers for characters from Cells at Work, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and My Hero Academia (Masterdadabelle on Social Media, masterdadabelle@gmail.com ), more sewn magnets from Hunter Geek (HunterGeek on social media, huntergeeky@gmail.com ), a neat duel set of pixel art Moogle and Charmander keychains from Pixel Parasite (Pixel_Parasite on social media, https://www.youtube.com/user/DarylDoesGames ), My Hero Academia’s Ochaco as a keychain from Corky-Lunn (Designsbycorkylunn on Social Media, corkylunn@gmail.com )

-From the 1 night Video Game Garage Sale: I found a Zorua and Incineroar figure for relatively a good deal too!

-I also got the new 404s pin and the D20 Live set of 3 pins at the shows, and from a friend who wrestlers as Mike Forte I got his new hat too.

*My cosplay outfits*
This year I went with one outfit for each day though my first one I wore on Friday and I carried partway into Saturday for the Alpha-1 Wrestling panel as I got inspired by one of my favourite wrestlers Chris Jericho’s Gothic/Rock look from NJPW’s Dominion show! It was the first time I’ve used lipstick and eyeliner which was tricky I find, especially when it’s on if I got itchy on that spot. I already owned the black leather jacket, a wig I’ve used for past cosplay outfits including the WWE/WWF version of Jericho, the new Jericho t-shirt “Alpha Club” version, and the pants so all I had to get was the makeup and I got the fedora from Value Village. I was happy some of the wrestling fans and wrestlers there knew who I was doing.

Midway through Saturday I switched for D20 Live into a custom Pokémon Professor outfit. I own the lab coat, Gengar hat that always get complimented, the Gengar plushie that was the exact one they gave away at the raffle at intermission with other items donated to the event, and my toy Pokeballs.

Sunday I kept it simple with something I wore to the Cosplay Picnic earlier in the month with a scaled down Barazo Mankanshoku Nudist Beach outfit from Kill La Kill. Being hot I welcomed just being in shorts, a Satsuki T-Shirt I got from Chop Shop Goods in the past, a black vest, one of the black gloves (I unfortunately lost the other one and wasn’t going to buy another pair), armband and cap. The new thing added was my new Mako Mankanshoku plushie I got from Conspiracy Comics prior to the convention. http://conspiracycomics.com/

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